No. 682.—April, 1898. 
THE WRETHAM MERES. 
By W. G. CLARKE. 
Norts of Thetford, on part of the belt of barren heathland 
that surrounds the town, are several sheets of water known as 
meres, which are almost unique in their formation and situation. 
Of similar origin, but with very different surroundings, are other 
meres, a little further northward, in Wretham Park. It is of 
the heathland meres—Ringmere, Langmere, Fowlmere, and the 
Devil’s Punch Bowl—that I shall more particularly write; 
although the bird-life of the meres must necessarily include the 
whole series—Mickle Mere, Great Mere, and West Mere, in 
addition to those previously mentioned. 
Ringmere lies close to the main road, between Thetford 
and Wretham Station. A triangular plantation shelters it on the 
south—a plantation of fir, larch, birch, and beech trees. It is 
most impressive at night: then the trunks of the silver birch 
stand out ghostly in the gloom of the fir trees; and the sighing 
of the aspen and the soughing of the fir trees, with the crisp 
rustle of the brown bracken, have a singular harmony as we 
wander along the woodmen’s paths or through the woodland 
glades. Mayhap we hear the uncanny ‘‘ Hoo-oo-oo-tu-vit”’ of a 
Long-eared Owl, or the flapping of some startled Pigeon in the 
treetops. But of the mere itself—a pool in the midst of a wild 
heath. With the Raven, immortalised of Poe, one is at first 
tempted to say, ‘Only that, and nothing more.” Thoreau 
Zool. 4th ser. vol. II., April, 1898. L 
